


Just Go

by disco_agidyne



Category: Persona 3, Persona 4, Persona Series
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Banhamu, Board Games, F/M, Persona 3 Spoilers, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-21
Updated: 2015-12-21
Packaged: 2018-05-08 05:31:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5485400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/disco_agidyne/pseuds/disco_agidyne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yu returns to Iwatodai during a holiday, where he happens to meet a charming and surprisingly competitive young woman.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just Go

**Author's Note:**

> Just something short [for someone who's waited far too long](http://disco-agidyne.tumblr.com/post/135651455859/looks-around-nervously-makes-sure-no-one-is). It was initially meant to be a drabble, but I figured after over a year of waiting, they deserve something a little longer. Somehow I get the feeling this isn't exactly what they had in mind, but... "OTL
> 
> I proofread this one myself, so I apologize for any mistakes!

Tatsumi Port Island was exactly as Yu had remembered it: Crowded.

He’d wanted to visit the area again for a while, partially out of nostalgia for their school trip, partially to see what said trip had forced them to miss, but he was beginning to regret doing so over a holiday. After living in the city, one would think he’d be used to being packed shoulder-to-shoulder with strangers on a congested sidewalk, but after a year of living in Inaba, Yu couldn’t help but feel a little overwhelmed. He ducked into a bookstore to escape the crowd for a few moments.

When Yu walked in, there was an elderly man and a girl, about his own age if he had to guess, sitting at a table near the entrance. On the table was a board with several black and white stones on it, though the white ones greatly outnumbered the black.

“You’re a crafty one, Minako. You got me again!”

“I’ve really improved since you first taught me to play, huh?” Minako replied with a playful wink.

That small, simple action captured Yu’s attention.

She was cute. Really cute.

“Hey, you wanna go?”

Yu looked around only to see the store was empty save for himself and the two people he’d interrupted.

“Me?” he asked, having the sudden realization that maybe, just maybe, he’d been staring a little too long.

“Yeah, you.”

Before Yu could answer, the old man stood beside him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Good luck. You’ll need it. She’s brutal on the battlefield.”

“Oh, stop, Bunkichi. You’ll scare him off.”

“She may look pretty, but she’s bloodthirsty, I tell ya.”

Bunkichi gave Yu one final pat on the shoulder before returning to a pile of unsorted books behind the counter.

“I suppose I could play a round.” Yu took the empty seat across from Minako. “Go, right? It’s been a while.”

“Feeling rusty?”

“A little, yeah.”

“I’m sure it’ll come back to you. I’m Minako, by the way.” She smiled at her new opponent.

“Yu.” He met her smile with a small one of his own.

That smile disappeared within ten moves.

Yu stared at the board covered in white stones, baffled at how thoroughly he’d been defeated. He hadn’t expected to win, but this… this hurt his pride a bit.

“It’s… over already?”

“ _Bloodthirsty!_ ” Bunkichi called from the back of the store. Minako giggled and moved her hand as if to wave away the words.

“You’re good,” Yu said, eyes returning from the old man’s outburst back to the board before him.

“Thanks.” Minako rested her elbows on the table and her chin in her hands. “I’ve been practicing.”

“Actually, may I,” Yu lifted his eyes from the map of his defeat and locked them on Hamuko, “have another round?”

Hamuko reeled back a bit, surprised at the intensity behind such a mundane request.

“Uh, sure.”

She slowly put her composure back together and cleaned up her spoils from the previous game. An old woman approached them with a warm smile as she set a couple cups of tea on the table for them. Yu acknowledged her with a tiny nod and a quiet “thank you,” but the woman just brushed it off.

“My, aren’t you bold. Most people give up after one round with Minako.”

“Not really bold, more like…” Yu rubbed his neck and turned to the empty board, lost in thought.

“Foolish?” Minako offered playfully, folding her hands under her chin.

“Persistent,” Yu said. A hint of feigned offense flavored his tone, though it wasn’t obvious until after he dropped the serious expression. The elderly woman giggled, amused by their youth, and returned to her work.

“Well, let’s see where that persistence gets you,” Minako said as she placed her first stone on the board.

The second game started the same as the first, move for move, but just as Minako was about to lay on the sass for Yu doing the same thing twice, he switched his strategy, taking a place that captured nearly half of her stones. He took a drink of his tea, but as he started to lower it from his mouth, he noticed Minako leaning forward over the table, squinting at him as she searched his face.

“Can I help you?” Yu’s voice echoed in his cup.

Without a word, Minako slowly sat herself back down in her seat. She made a motion with her hand, pointing from her eyes to his as if to say ‘I’m watching you,’ then placed her next stone. Before long, the two of them were swapping stones with every turn. Slowly, the board filled up from the middle to the edges. The pair focused on the game, forgetting about their drinks entirely.

Shoulders stiff and eyes filled with fire, Minako placed her final stone in the last remaining liberty with an impact hard enough to rattle the rest of them. Yu flinched in his seat, shocked to see his once calm opponent getting so worked up.

“You… you don’t like losing, do you?”

“No,” she admitted, lifting her face to meet his with a grin. “I don’t.”

The board was covered in white, denoting another victory for Minako. Yu leaned back in his chair and took a deep breath.

“Looks like you won again.”

The tension in Minako’s muscles disappeared and she let her shoulders fall back into their usual position.

“So, Mr. Persistent, up for another?”

Yu checked his watch and shook his head.

“I would, but I have to get going,” he said, standing up.

“Are you sure you’re not just scared?” Minako put her elbow on the table and leaned against it.

“Maybe a little.”

“Well, if you’re sure.” She stood up and held out her hand. “Thanks.”

Yu tilted his head.

“Thanks?”

“For today, I mean.” Minako laughed. “I haven’t had that much fun in a while. You’re a quick study.”

Yu smiled and took her hand.

“I should be thanking you for giving me a second chance to prove myself.”

“It’s nice, isn’t it?”

Yu could’ve sworn her voice had wavered in that instant. He briefly wondered if he’d said something to offend her, but before he could ponder it further she was beaming again.

“You better get going. I wouldn’t want you to be late.”

Minako turned Yu around and gave him a pat on the back, pushing him toward the door.

“Wait, I,” Yu stumbled, over both his feet and his words. “I’d like to see you again. If that’s okay.”

He turned back to face Minako, only to see her face a shade pinker than before. Yu soon found himself sharing the same color as he realized the forwardness of his statement.

“For round three, I mean.”

Minako broke into a fit of giggles powerful enough to make her clutch her sides.

“What?” Yu couldn’t help but ask, not nearly as amused by their awkward conversation as she was.

“We could meet up at my place sometime,” she suggested once the bouts of laughter subsided. “I’ve got board games.”

“I’d like that.”

The two of them exchanged phone numbers and she wrote her address down for him on a scrap of paper she’d fetched from behind the register. He told her he’d only be in town for a short while, and she told him that tomorrow afternoon would be fine, if he didn’t mind the short notice. He didn’t. They waved their goodbyes and Yu left, his mind already fixated on when he’d see Minako next.

The next morning Yu sent Minako a text before he set out to explore the city again. Two hours passed without any response. He sent another. One hour later, he sent a third, and yet his phone remained silent and still, in stark contrast to the bustling metropolis around him.

He began to worry that maybe his first instinct had been right, and that he had upset her somehow. He ducked into a quiet alleyway and flipped open his phone, then scrolled down to her number and called it.

“ _We're sorry; you have reached a number that has been disconnected or is no longer in service. If you feel you have—_ ”

Yu snapped his phone shut. Did she want to avoid him that badly? Why didn’t she say something? He walked down the street chewing the inside of his lip while his mind chewed over those questions.

He pulled the scrap with her address on it out of his pocket and looked it over. He briefly considered going straight there, but decided not to in case she really didn’t want to see him again. The last thing he wanted to do was seem creepy.

Eventually he found himself in front of the bookstore again. Through the windows, he could see that the store was dark, not a single light inside. The table near the front window where he’d met Minako the day before was covered in a thick layer of dust.

A sign on the front door explained it to him: ‘ _Sorry, but we are no longer in business as of January 9th, 2012_.’

“That can’t be right.”

Unwilling to accept that, he entered the fast food restaurant next to the abandoned bookstore and approached the counter.

“Excuse me,” he said, pulling over one of the staff members. “About the bookstore next door, how long has it…”

The words died in his throat when he saw the way the part-timer’s face fell.

“Did you know them? The couple who ran it?”

Something about the way they’d said that tied knots in Yu’s stomach.

“Yeah.”

“And no one told you?”

Yu wasn’t sure he wanted to hear the answer, but he gripped the paper still in his hand and pressed on anyway.

“Told me what?”

“They passed away a couple years ago.”

A chill ran through Yu’s body. The weight of the news made him take a step back, even though he’d half-expected that answer. He couldn’t believe it. Bunkichi and his wife had been so full of life just yesterday, and the store was open, and Minako, she…

“What about the girl? The one who used to play Go there all the time.”

The part-timer paused to cringe and press their lips together in a way that made Yu feel like a bridge had collapsed beneath him, then finally shook their head.

“Sorry.”

Shocked stiff, Yu watched as the worker went returned to their duties. After shaking himself out of his stupor, he left the restaurant. He smoothed out the scrap of paper and held it in his trembling hands. He reread it over and over. They couldn’t be dead. He had evidence of their meeting just the day before right there in his hand, staring back at him. Maybe this was all some kind of joke, some kind of horrible, twisted joke, and everyone was in on it except him.

Against his better judgment, he decided to find the place she’d written down for him. After asking for directions at a few local businesses and pestering a couple passersby, he found himself standing not in front of her front door, but instead at her grave.

The memorial forced Yu to accept the reality before him, cold and hard like the stone it had been sculpted from.

Slowly, Yu knelt down beside it.

“You knew the whole time, didn’t you?”

In that moment, he understood why she hated losing.


End file.
